A whiff of a potential problem in Colorado with fracking and drilling

In the spring of 2010, odors coming from an Antero Resources drilling rig not far from homes in Battlement Mesa, in western Colorado, drove residents to shut their windows and at least one to bury her head in a pillow.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Commission issued a notice of alleged violation and Antero took steps to address the problem.

Even as the odors vanished many residents in the Garfield County development wonder whether there was more to the fumes than just a bad smell.

When it comes to the impacts oil and gas drilling near developed areas Battlement Mesa may be a test case. Antero had proposed drilling 200 wells of nine pads in Battlement Mesa and two other companies are drilling within a half of mile of the 5,000-resident development.

That sparked a push for a health assessment by residents of Battlement Mesa and while the Garfield County commissoners eventually voted to kill the project, much of its data lives on, such as the air samples used in the School of Public Health study.

In the fracking process a mixture of water, sand and trace chemicals are pumped into a well under pressure to fracture the rocks and release more oil and gas.

The fracking fluid, water from the rock strata and hydrocarbons then start flowing back out of the well. It is this process that chemical fumes can escape.

Using air samples collected from 2008 through 2010, the study analyzed emissions and tried to calculate the potential health risk.

There are a lot of aspects of the study that have been questioned by industry – the calculated cancer risk, the exposure — and the lead author Lisa McKenzie also stresses that more study is needed.

One element, however, that can be pulled from the study is that levels of volatile organic chemicals associated with fracking and flowback were high within a half of a mile of the drill site.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has developed a Hazard Index – it isn’t a legal standard just a tool – in which “1” is the level at which no health effects would be expected.

The levels at half-mile from the well pads in Battlement Mesa were at “5,” according to the study.

The chemicals contributing to that elevated rate were to trimethylbenzenes, xylenes, and aliphatic hydrocarbons, the study said. The chemicals have been linked to neurological and respiratory problems.

Whether people are exposed to the chemicals for a long enough period to create health problems is an unresolved issue – but it raises a question that needs an answer.

And what of Battlement Mesas?

“Those initial odor complaints were in a section called Watson Ranch that was close to the Antero well,” said Bob Arrington, a member of Battlement Concerned Citiznes. “Now we’ve had complaints in Tamarisk Village which is about a half-mile from an Encana well.”

The Encana well is on a rise above the development and as part of its drilling permit, the company is using sound walls to dampen noise, and low-noise, low-visibility flares with air emissions controls.

The fumes from the rig tend to gather in a gully and flow down hill, Arrington said. Once the Encana community representative was notified, she got on the phone to the drill site. “They fired up a combustor and took care of it,” Arrington said. “What we’ve seen is that operators have a lot of descretion in how they handle their rigs.”

“The fracking fluid, water from the rock strata and hydrocarbons then start flowing back out of the well. It is this process that chemical fumes can escape”
So, as any sensible person would expect, those fracking fluids don’t stay “safely” thousands of feet below the surface or our aquifers.

OneAmerican

Battlement Mesa residents, y’all are Screwed! Fracking has already been proven to give off health threatening vapors, it causes earthquakes and destroys ground water. Fracking is going to ruin the United States. But the big oil companies and the paid for puppet politicians have all jumped on this band wagon because they can charge for Natural gas just as they charged for oil.

The United States can produce electricity by wind power alone that would equal 3.5 times present consumption if it were maximized. The problem is that Wind is FREE!

I propose that every voter cast votes for every challenger and eliminate every incumbent in every election. Then the people can tell their reps for a change what to do.

We need to change the United States in this generation or future generations will suffer debilitating diseases and we may give rise to generations of mutants.

Intervention

“Whiff” of a problem???? Are you kidding me?!?! Fracking has laid ruin to communities from the east to the rockies. When Pinedale, WY at the base of the Wind River Range has worse air pollution than LA and when the water quality of Erie, CO is seriously questioned and the only thing these communities have in common is oil and gas development there is more than a whiff of a problem. The industry, consumers and many in government have their head’s in the sand on developing new sources to provide power to our growing population. Until the US invests full throttle in new energy development we are doomed to live with this issue. It is both a matter national pride – that can and will do it- and national security- China, Africa, middle east and Russia all have far to much leverage over us by our reliance on fossil fuels. We are an addict it polluting our country and blinding our eyes.

Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.